Feighan welcomes extra €1m for Endoscopy Suite

Local Fine Gael TD Frank Feighan has welcomed the official sanction of a further €1m in funding for the state-of-the-art Endoscopy Suite planned for Roscommon Hospital.

“Earlier this year, the project team accepted my proposal to locate the Endoscopy Suite on top of the Urgent Care Centre building.

“Consequently, it was envisaged that the capital budget for this flagship project would need a further uplift of €1m and I am delighted to announce that the required total budget of €3m has now been formally approved.

“This capital budget will fund all the capital costs associated with the project from design services to the actual construction of the suite.

“I am please to learn that the project is now moving apace and I understand that twenty two tenders have been received in relation to the design services needed for the project.

“It’s expected that the successful design team will be appointed in August to manage the design brief and given the sophisticated design of what will be a new build with state-of-the-art equipment, the design stage will take a number of months to complete.

“Once this stage is complete, the construction contract will then be put out to tender and when the Endoscopy Suite is fully completed next year, it will substantially add to the growing activity at the hospital with an estimated 30 procedures to be carried out every day.

“With the addition of the Endoscopy Suite, I also expect that Roscommon Hospital will become a recognised centre for the National Cancer Screening Programme and be able to facilitate patients from Galway hospitals in order to reduce waiting times for other procedures.

“I am also delighted at the great reaction by ordinary staff to this multi-million euro investment programme for the hospital, of which the Endoscopy Suite is the flagship project. At all times, the over-riding objective has been to safeguard the hospital and all the jobs there,” concluded Deputy Feighan.